This is a nice way to walk through automotive history from home.
Thanks to the coronavirus scare and subsequent social distancing measures, gearheads have seen many events and venues cancelled throughout the world. Plenty of places are still closed down, including the Petersen Automotive Museum, which has been a fantastic job of releasing interesting videos regularly. This time we get to go on yet another partial tour of the Vault, only we’re seeing pre-war cars like Bugattis.
In case you don’t know, the Petersen Automotive Museum started off as a department store which went out of business. The underground parking levels have been converted into a storage area for cars not on display inside the museum at that time. Before the whole coronavirus thing, you could pay a pretty hefty sum to go through the Vault on a guided tour. Now we’re getting a peek inside for free.
If you’re both a gearhead and a history buff, this video is actually pretty interesting. You might already have seen some of the cars or know different details about them, but it’s unlikely you knew everything in the 45-minute video. If you did, well you’re quite the car nerd and should be proud.
Many of the automakers who designed and manufactured the cars in the beginning portions of the Vault are no longer around. You might not have ever heard of them, or if you did you didn’t think too much about them. There are some notable names everyone knows, like Cadillac and Peugeot, but this tour really helps highlight how much volatility there was in the market back in the day.
The guide from Petersen is well-versed in the history of the cars and what was going on at the time which influenced them. Even compared to some of the other tours the museum has posted online, this one is one of the more educational. In other words, this is a good one to show to your family or anyone else who will watch.
